Last night on 7NEWS, you saw former Mayor David Fonseca admit that what he did, cashing $30,000 in bounced checks at the City Council and never paying them back was, "probably criminal" and that he is responsible. So what will the council do? well, Mayor Zenaida Moya today confirmed that Fonseca has until end of business on Friday to pay back $30,000 to cover the bounced cheques. If he does not come up with full repayment at that time, she says that after 4:30 on Friday, the council will pursue its legal options with criminal and civil action.
But Moya stresses that with the current financial position of the council - legal action is her least favored option because the council simply needs the money to be repaid as matter of urgency. Fonseca has said that he used his personal bank account to pay for a social assistance programme and that's why so many bounced cheques accumulated. The most notable came on February 28, the day before the election when he cashed a $4,000 rubber check at the City's Traffic Department.
7NEWS is informed by personnel in the Council's Finance Department, that they repeatedly warned him that the checks had not been repaid and that he had not accounted for or paid back the personal loans. The diligence of that department in keeping records of Fonseca's money maneuverings, even as money was being hemorrhaged out, was what allowed the new mayor to get up to speed on the $400,000 scandal two days after she took office.
